The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1887-07-28

THURSDAY, JULY %, 1887.
PRESIDENT LlNC0LNS ASSASSIN
ALTON.

The incarceration of Boston Cor
bett in the Topeka Insane Asylum
ends the public career of all that
circle of notable people that were so
closely identified with the history of
the awful tragedy enacted in Wash
ington the evening of April II,
1865, when President Lincoln and
his wife and Major Henry Rathbone,
and his step-sister, Miss Clara Har-
ris, occupied box at Ford's
Theatre in Washington. President
Lincoln was that night assassinated
by Wilkes Booth during the play
then being produced, called "Our
American Cousin" The assassin
tried to escape, but was followed
and compelled to take refuge in a
barn, where he was surrounded by
troops and the barn set on fire.
While the flames were rapidly APP
preaching the covering form of the
crippled actor he was shot dead by
one of the troops named Boston
Corbett. This Corbett was SER
geant, and for having disobeyed the
orders not to shoot Booth, Col.
Conger, who was in charge of the
troops, declared that he should be
taken back to Washington under
arrest, but no record can be found
to the effect that this declaration
was ever carried into effect, and
Corbett went unpublished. Mrs.
Lincoln afterwards became insane,
and died some years ago.
The other two occupants of the
box at Ford's Theatre afterward
married. Major Rathbone was the
son of Mrs. Rathbone of Albany,
by her first husband, and Clara
Harris was the daughter of Ira Har-
ris, United States Senator from
New York, by his first wife. The
surviving parents married, making
Major Rathbone and Miss Clara
Harris step-brother and step-sister.
For some years Mr.. and Mrs. Rath-
bone lived happily together, and
children came to bless their home.
But the awful scenes of that event
full night so shocked the nerves of
Major Rathbone that they never
recovered. 1t will be remembered
that he tried TO prevent the fatal
shot fired by the actor, and was
himself wounded in the arm by a
dagger in the hands of Booth. AL
though young man, Major Rath-
bone became depressed in spirits,
and after his marriage he continued
to grow more respondent, until the
family went abroad in the vain hope
that he might recover from the
shock he had experienced. Shortly
afterwards, however, the news came
to America that Rathbone had killed
the wife he loved so we'll, having
enacted the scenes of the Washing
ton tragedy, using first knife, as
Booth had a dagger, and then a
pistol. The unfortunate man now
languishes in a madhouse in Ger
many.
The closing scene in this strange,
eventful story was the election of
Boston Corbett as assistant door
keeper of the Kansas House of
Representatives, his action in adj
journing that august body by draw
ing his revolver on the Speaker, and
his incarceration in the Topeka In
sane Asylum, where he is at pre-
sent confined, hopeless wreck,
mentally and physically. The
shooting of Booth has long been
ghastly spectacle before his eyes,
in his waking and sleeping hours,
until reason deserted the throne so
haunted by the scenes of that dark
night when he had killed the assas-
sin of President Lincoln, without
excuse or provocation, and against
orders.
Thus, with the assassination of
Mr.. Lincoln, tragedy itself with
out parallel, sprang into prominence
the names of five other persons, all
destined to fates so awful that there
probably never has been or ever
will be recorded like counterpart.